Hammer's "The Snorkel" is a superb, relatively obscure suspense thriller that shares common ground with "Night of the Hunter" and "Wait Until Dark". The set-up is immediately arresting. A man (Peter van Eyck) manages to gas his wife to death and make it look like a suicide. When the police arrive, the doors are still sealed from the inside, trapping the deadly vapor. The police don't find the man, who is still inside the room, so they refuse to believe the man's stepdaughter (Mandy Miller) who is convinced that van Eyck, who's meant to be in France, killed her mother. What follows is a neat, absorbing piece of cinema in which Miller sets out to prove that van Eyck is a cold-blooded double murderer. Part of the film's fun is discovering how van Eyck pulled off such a brilliant plan, and seeing it put into motion all over again. Miller, who looks great in a bathing suit, is positively luminous as the determined schoolgirl; van Eyck is slick, slimy, and a joy to watch. Made on a modest budget, this is great movie-making that delivers a dynamite ending.
Review of The Snorkel
